At the beginning of the season, Boston Celtics guard Avery Bradley made a prediction: If his team played well enough, he’d give himself a chance to compete for the the Defensive Player of the Year award.
Avery Bradley hounded Kyrie Irving to prove he’s one of the NBA’s best perimeter defenders
His will to get a defensive stop on the game’s final play is nothing new.
Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Bradley has missed 18 games this season recovering from an Achilles injury, but on a minutes restriction in just his second game back, he showed why he feels he’s the NBA’s best perimeter defender.
With 1:29 remaining in Boston’s 103-99 Wednesday win over the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Celtics up by just one, Bradley checked All-Star starter Kyrie Irving in the left corner. His stringent defense (with a cameo from Al Horford) forced Irving toward the foul line where, ultimately, the Cavaliers guard was bailed out by a questionable foul call.
On the ensuing possession, Bradley found himself all alone, once again holding his own against one of the league’s vaunted scorers. This time, the undersized guard withstood Irving’s flurry of dribble moves before forcing a contested turn-around jump shot.
The 6’7 Klay Thompson was unsuccessful in defending a similar shot on Christmas Day.
In all, Bradley finished with just 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting and did not record a steal in the Celtics’ win over the Cavaliers. Moreover, Irving finished with 28 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field.
But for the 26-year-old defensive stopper, the game has never been about posting gaudy stats similar to his All-Star counterparts — Irving is going to get his buckets, one way or another.
It’s about getting stops against the league’s top talent, just like he did against Cleveland’s All-Star point guard on Wednesday.
“I love the challenge,” Bradley said ahead of the season, according to MassLive.com’s Tom Westerholm. “I love going up against the best players. I don’t care who it is. ... Kyrie Irving, none of those guys scare me. I know some players in the NBA probably get butterflies before the game, but not me. I’m licking my lips. I come excited. They need to prepare for me at the end of the day. That’s how I think.
”I don’t play for steals. I play to stop people. That’s what wins games.”
Bradley doesn’t just get up for matchups against Irving, either. His defensive résumé includes other decorated scorers, as well. After Bradley held him to a 14-point night on an inefficient 3-of-16 shooting night, Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard was compelled to tell him he’s the league’s top perimeter defender.
”A lot of guys just, people say they’re defenders. They look like defenders on some possessions, but that’s what he does,” said Lillard, according to MassLive.com’s Jay King. “That’s what he wants to do. He’s there every possession. He doesn’t get screened. He’s tough. You’ve got to give credit where it’s due.”
Make no mistake, Bradley is by no means a one-way player — the Celtics guard is putting up career-best numbers across the board.
Bradley is averaging 17.2 points per game on 47.3 percent field goal shooting and a 41.2 percent clip from downtown. His 6.6 rebounds per game are nearly twice that of any of his six seasons prior. Before his Achilles injury, Bradley had scored more than 20 points eight times in 38 games this season, including a 31-point game against Charlotte where he poured in eight threes.
He did so just 12 times in 76 games last year. Celtics’ president Danny Ainge feels his two-way guard should be considered one of the league’s better perimeter players.
”He’s the best perimeter defender, and he’s in the top 40-50 offensive players in the league,” Ainge said, according to ESPN.com’s Chris Forsberg. “If it was the other way around, if it was a player who was the best guard, offensively, but not even in the top 50-60 [defensively], the guy would be a perennial All-Star.
”So I think that Avery is a very underrated player. I think he’s an All-Star-caliber player, for sure, and should be considered and mentioned among all the guys.”
For over a decade, Memphis Grizzlies guard Tony Allen was heralded as the league’s best perimeter defender. Kobe Bryant sent him an autographed pair of sneakers out of respect. He yelled “First-Team All-Defense” after locking up Stephen Curry.
Bradley is hoping his play yells the same.
“I think I should make the defensive team every year,” the Boston Celtics guard told MassLive.com before a Friday morning shootaround in Cleveland. “I know I’m the best on-ball defender in the NBA.”
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